Separately, Nacchio is seeking to have the case transferred from federal court in Denver to Kansas or another district, citing a study that shows 64 percent of potential jurors in Denver believe he is guilty.

The SEC discloses in a court filing that it held settlement talks with attorneys for former Qwest president Afshin Mohebbi in September and November. It states that “presently there is no possibility of settlement” with Mohebbi.

“It appears that there is little possibility of settlement with all parties, although there may be settlements between some parties,” SEC attorneys wrote in the filing.

SEC cases are usually settled out of court.

Nacchio, Mohebbi, former Qwest chief financial officer Robert Woodruff and former Qwest accountants Frank Noyes and James Kozlowski are accused of engaging in an accounting fraud that inflated the Denver-based company’s revenue by $3 billion from 1999 to 2002. Qwest later restated much of that revenue.

The SEC is seeking the repayment of stock-sale profits, bonuses and salaries earned during the alleged fraud. For Nacchio, who is serving a six-year prison term for his criminal insider trading conviction, that represents more than $200 million, according to the SEC.

The SEC also reveals that it held settlement discussions with Kozlowski’s attorney in February, but a deal is “unlikely.” Nacchio, Woodruff and Noyes aren’t specifically mentioned as having held recent settlement talks, though the SEC says it has had such discussions with all of them at some point.

Many of the same people who testified during Nacchio’s criminal trial in 2007, including former CFO Robin Szeliga, are listed as potential witnesses for the civil trial, which may not start until 2011.

As part of the change of venue request, Nacchio’s attorneys hired a Duke law professor to conduct the study on potential jurors.

“The Denver community is uniquely interested in and passionate about the outcome of this case,” Nacchio attorney Sean Berkowitz wrote in the filing. “And it is uniquely knowledgeable about and prejudiced against Joe Nacchio.”

The Nacchio crew did a lot of research on media coverage, noting that over the past 10 years, an average of four articles per week from the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News have been about or mentioned Nacchio.

The filing states that from “January 2000 to July 2006, the Denver Post published 643 articles referring to Nacchio; the Rocky Mountain News ran 765 articles over the same timeframe.”

It also mentions a “bad disco song” about Nacchio titled “Nacchio Man.”

And the stockholders and employees (who were FORCED to put their 401K money in stock and not allowed to sell it when Nacchio sold his) wanted the stock value to stay close to what they bought it at, as opposed to being run down to literally pennies on the dollar – guess which side I am rooting for (and I belong to neither group). I just hope the people who were defrauded get more of the payout than the attorneys do.

David joined The Denver Post in 1999, his second go-round in the Mile High City. Since then he’s covered a variety of topics – from human services to consumer affairs – most always with an investigative bent. Currently he does investigations and banking.